On the plus side, the boy is still with his mother, and he's in school now, and doing well. We see him regularly (at least the distaffbopper and littlebopper do) because he goes to the same school as the littlebopper. He doesn't remember staying with us because he was under 2 years old, and it was only for about a month. So while it may have caused a bunch of heartache for his mother, I doubt it will harm him in any way.

How come CPS loves to pull kids out of non-abusive homes over the most trivial sh*t, yet we're always hearing stories about OBVIOUSLY dangerous homes where kids are found buried in the back yard after years of torture, and CPS was all "Duh-uhhhhhhhh I know nuthin'."?

kombat_unit:In effect, her parents help kill their child because they couldn't hide or lay off weed.

Hopefully, these 2 dumbasses don't breed again.

Hopefully you don't breed, because this had nothing to do with pot. The tragedy resulted from the privatizing of police functions, and the venality, corruption, and incompetence that always results when that happens.

Our insane national policy on marijuana exists because our insane national leader President Nixon decided:

"We need, and I use the word 'all out war,' on all fronts...we have to attack on all fronts...[I want a] goddamn strong statement about marijuana...that just tears the ass out of them...Homosexuality, dope, immorality in general - these are the enemies of strong societies. "

Why did Nixon so vehemently oppose marijuana legalization?

TEH JOOZ!!

Yep, "the Jewish cabal is out to get me" is something Nixon actually said, and actually believed. Which explains why Nixon also said this:

"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana are Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists."

It's already been established on here that pot had little, if anything to do with the child being removed by CPS. So can we stop pretending this is the fault of some dull eyed hicks from Texas doing it "cuz of the devil's mary-wana. Praise Jay-Sus!"?

The foster system IS farked up. But you know what? These kids are coming from farked up. farked up is all they know and most of them are going to reproduce at the first available opportunity and start the "completely farked" cycle all over again. farked in the Biblical sense. So farked you don't even have the mental framework to realize your farked.

It just pisses me off that everytime something like this happens, people jump down CPS' throat. They are in there every day dealing with the kind of shiat you can't even imagine for a salary they could earn as an office manager at a dentist. They take farked kids out of farked homes and try to put them in the least farked place they can find with the same money the Navy spends on one can of missile paint, and they're the bad guys.

HotWingAgenda:SnakeLee: Wait, no I found another article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385159/Foster-mother-beats-t o ddler-seized-biological-parents-social-services-discovered-smoking-pot .html?ito=feeds-newsxml

It says: According to court records, Alexandria's mother has a medical condition that does not allow her to be left alone with her own child and Hill's marijuana use had become so bad he almost dropped his daughter down the stairs.

Good find. That article also says that the family voluntarily sent the kid to foster care until they could get their lives in order, and that the parents are not living together. I would guess the mom has major depression or bipolar disorder if she's safe around adults, but not small children.

I was just about to rage-splooge when you had to come along like a wet towel and put out the outrage!! Asshole.

In all seriousness though, the disturbing part about this story (other than the dead child, of course) is how Texas relies on private agencies to run their foster care system. Obviously no system is ever perfect and bad foster parents are always going to get through, but handing that responsibility over to someone who is motivated by profit seems like a recipe for disaster.

pmdgrwr:so can cps take your child if you were speeding in a car with the child in it? I mean speed is breaking the law and endangering a child so it would seem fitting for cps to remove a child from that situation.

Around here they've started charging child endangerment if you are intoxicated around kids...so there's that.

Magnanimous_J:It's already been established on here that pot had little, if anything to do with the child being removed by CPS. So can we stop pretending this is the fault of some dull eyed hicks from Texas doing it "cuz of the devil's mary-wana. Praise Jay-Sus!"?

The foster system IS farked up. But you know what? These kids are coming from farked up. farked up is all they know and most of them are going to reproduce at the first available opportunity and start the "completely farked" cycle all over again. farked in the Biblical sense. So farked you don't even have the mental framework to realize your farked.

It just pisses me off that everytime something like this happens, people jump down CPS' throat. They are in there every day dealing with the kind of shiat you can't even imagine for a salary they could earn as an office manager at a dentist. They take farked kids out of farked homes and try to put them in the least farked place they can find with the same money the Navy spends on one can of missile paint, and they're the bad guys.

They've placed her with two abusive families. So, excuse me if I don't shed a tear for CPS.

Magnanimous_J:It just pisses me off that everytime something like this happens, people jump down CPS' throat. They are in there every day dealing with the kind of shiat you can't even imagine for a salary they could earn as an office manager at a dentist. They take farked kids out of farked homes and try to put them in the least farked place they can find with the same money the Navy spends on one can of missile paint, and they're the bad guys.

CPS placed a child with a foster parent that beat the child to death. Does the State of Texas bear part of the blame for cutting social services and slashing CPS' budget to the bare bones minimum? Sure. But that does not excuse CPS for gross negligence and failing to protect a child in their care.

Voiceofreason01:Magnanimous_J:It just pisses me off that everytime something like this happens, people jump down CPS' throat. They are in there every day dealing with the kind of shiat you can't even imagine for a salary they could earn as an office manager at a dentist. They take farked kids out of farked homes and try to put them in the least farked place they can find with the same money the Navy spends on one can of missile paint, and they're the bad guys.

CPS placed a child with a foster parent that beat the child to death. Does the State of Texas bear part of the blame for cutting social services and slashing CPS' budget to the bare bones minimum? Sure. But that does not excuse CPS for gross negligence and failing to protect a child in their care.

It seems to me that the state of Texas should bear most of the blame, for ignoring the private company's numerous violations, and allowing them to continue placing children in sketchy homes. CPS can only do what the state tells them to, and I'll guarantee you that CPS' budget is next to nil...the money is going to the various private companies that actually handle placement.

If a private company can do something more efficiently than the government, I'm all for it, but CPS is definitely NOT one of those areas, because there's too much financial incentive to turn a blind eye at the expense of a kid who can't do anything about it.

dittybopper:SnakeLee: It says: According to court records, Alexandria's mother has a medical condition that does not allow her to be left alone with her own child and Hill's marijuana use had become so bad he almost dropped his daughter down the stairs.

Meh. I actually dropped the littlebopper when he was a toddler, and the distaffbopper dropped him as an infant. He's in the gifted program at school. Neither of us do illegal drugs, and we rarely drink.

/Don't think we drank at all when he was that age.//Did read to him every farking day from the time he could sit up to the time he could read to us.///If you have an infant or toddler, read a book to them every day.

even if it's just 'brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" for the 900 time cause the kid loves his brown bear brown bear ?

oh_please:It seems to me that the state of Texas should bear most of the blame, for ignoring the private company's numerous violations, and allowing them to continue placing children in sketchy homes. CPS can only do what the state tells them to, and I'll guarantee you that CPS' budget is next to nil...the money is going to the various private companies that actually handle placement.

If a private company can do something more efficiently than the government, I'm all for it, but CPS is definitely NOT one of those areas, because there's too much financial incentive to turn a blind eye at the expense of a kid who can't do anything about it.

If it shames the Texas Legislature into actually fixing the system and adequately funding CPS so that this never happens again then that's fine with me.

Voiceofreason01:Magnanimous_J:It just pisses me off that everytime something like this happens, people jump down CPS' throat. They are in there every day dealing with the kind of shiat you can't even imagine for a salary they could earn as an office manager at a dentist. They take farked kids out of farked homes and try to put them in the least farked place they can find with the same money the Navy spends on one can of missile paint, and they're the bad guys.

CPS placed a child with a foster parent that beat the child to death. Does the State of Texas bear part of the blame for cutting social services and slashing CPS' budget to the bare bones minimum? Sure. But that does not excuse CPS for gross negligence and failing to protect a child in their care.

You can't imagine what CPS sees every day. What most of us would consider bad, they are forced to consider acceptable. I feed my kids veggies, milk, grains, etc. Most of us do. They (CPS) are forced to accept that if a kid gets a bowl of fruity pebbles that's good enough for dinner. They are dealing with people that shouldn't be allowed to breed. If they tried to pull every kid that doesn't get what we/I consider normal, they'd be even more overwhelmed. They are forced to prioritize and give their attention to the worst of the worst. Sadly, that means sometimes bad things will happen in a situation they considered (hoped) would be good enough. Then there is the issue of Foster Parents. I'm sure there are a lot of good-hearted people that provide foster homes. But I would imagine the bulk of them are assholes that do it for the money. They probably provide just enough care to keep CPS off their backs, but use most of the money to support themselves. Then there is the issue of sheer volume. How many cases can one person effectively manage? If a family knows CPS will visit on Tuesday, they put down their beer and mildly clean up the place, throw a few items in the fridge and put on a dog and pony show. As soon as CPS leaves, they go right back to locking the kid in the closet and spending their foster paychecks on lottery tickets. It's a farked system because those in power aren't directly affected. Their kids have a nanny and have their ticket already punched for Harvard or Yale. Why should some millionaire that sets policies care about some poor kid that will never have any power to hurt them or theirs? We, as a nation, also have to set priorities. We spend trillions to safeguard our oil supply. We can't be frivolous and spend that money to check on some hippy parents that are having parenting issues. End of rant. Sorry.

dittybopper:SnakeLee: It says: According to court records, Alexandria's mother has a medical condition that does not allow her to be left alone with her own child and Hill's marijuana use had become so bad he almost dropped his daughter down the stairs.

Meh. I actually dropped the littlebopper when he was a toddler, and the distaffbopper dropped him as an infant. He's in the gifted program at school. Neither of us do illegal drugs, and we rarely drink.

I'll bet the outcome would not have been so "meh" if you had dropped him down the stairs. Getting back to TFA, I'm no fan of the War on Drugs, but I can totally believe that heavy use of pot (or alcohol, or a variety of other recreational or non-recreational drugs) can make someone unfit to care for a child safely.

Ugh, it bugs me so much when people say this. My wife and applied to be foster parents about a year ago. We filled out all the hugely intrusive paperwork, gave up six weekends in a row to attend the classes, etc. But when the caseworker came to do the home study, we mentioned that we had been pursuing adoption (don't get me started on that) and had decided to do foster care instead on the recommendation of our neighbor who was also a foster parent. And of course, we were open to adopting a child out of foster care if the situation arose. So they decided, on the basis of that alone, that we really didn't want to be foster parents after all and referred us back to yet another adoption agency. I found out later that quite a few other couples from our training class had been similarly rejected.

They complain about not having enough families, but they're so quick to dismiss the ones who actually volunteer to help.

Fun fact - according to the AJC, the "nonprofit" adoption agency that they sent us to spends more on their administration than on child-related services. Several of their employees make 6-figure salaries, but they somehow think it's justified to charge upwards of $25k for placement services.

SnakeLee:Wait, no I found another article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385159/Foster-mother-beats-t o ddler-seized-biological-parents-social-services-discovered-smoking-pot .html?ito=feeds-newsxml

It says: According to court records, Alexandria's mother has a medical condition that does not allow her to be left alone with her own child and Hill's marijuana use had become so bad he almost dropped his daughter down the stairs.

Almost? I am sure plenty of parents have Almost murdered their children. Almost is not a crime.

The parents, who are not together, handed Alexandria to Hill's mother to care for - until the state intervened on November 26th.According to the Department of Family and Protective Services, the family disagreed who should take custody of the girl and decided to involve the CPS themselves - until both mom and dad got their lives in order.

big mistake there.

Lazy Obama voters who feel entitled to have the government raise their kids for them!

/Also, literally everyone who has ever handled babies for more than a few days of time has dropped one//you dust them off quickly, go 'haha, babies, they cry over anything' when the wrath of god peers into the room suspiciously, then spend a few hours staring at the spot that made contact and hyperventilating over whether there is a bump showing or if you just ruined her chances of Harvard

dittybopper:FTFA:Police say Mrs. Small said she wanted to foster more children to earn extra income.

That is exactly 180 degrees the *WRONG* reason to do foster care.

My Ex-Sister-In-law did this. She spent money like her and her husband were millionaires. Constantly deep in debt. She decided to start taking in foster and special needs kids to make extra money. At thanksgiving one year, one of the boys, in a wheelchair, limited motor skills, could barely manipulate a fork, dropped a bean off the fork on to the floor. She went ape shiat on the kid. I stood up, dropped my whole plate on the floor and said "Yell at me, I dare you."

I should have done more but i was relatively new to the family and it was thanksgiving. She is out of the system now.

Too Pretty For Prison:Then there is the issue of Foster Parents. I'm sure there are a lot of good-hearted people that provide foster homes. But I would imagine the bulk of them are assholes that do it for the money.

While I agree with a lot of the points in your rant, this isn't one of them. Most foster parents do it for the love, not the money...there just isn't much money to be made by being a foster parent...it's not worth the incredible hassle.

offmymeds:Phoenix87ta: So is it just me, or is this rag's entire shtick based around the omission of all the important details in order to work their readers into a frothy rage?

Bingo.

Well, what bothers me is that the author feels the NEED to tweak the narrative. What happened here AIN'T RIGHT even if the guy robbed a bank. The child was completely innocent in this and you DO NOT need to play this "he was the perfect father and CPS has no cause to take her away".

Sometimes the CPS does take children away for reasons which cannot be discussed publicly. I mean, say a CPS agent "suspects" the child is sexually abusing the child. Well that's a thing. If it's just "inappropriate touching" that leaves no DNA evidence, I've been told there's a practical need to at least temporarily take the child from the parent because you can't get any info from a child when the child's under the parent's control. But when someone goes to the paper to criticize CPS, CPS cannot defend its actions by publicly telling CNN "well, the reason we took his daughter is we think he's been abusing her. He may have been putting his fingers in his little girl's vagina, basically raping her repeatedly. But we're not saying that he did... we're saying we have reasons to believe he did." And they're not even allowed to be *vague*, as that's *worse* in mediaspeak- "A CPS spokesman has responded that Mr. X may have done something truly heinous to Baby Y, but the possible nature of it was too horrific for him to repeat".

That's slander/libel. Once it gets to the point of filing court charges, the CPS can professionally, objectively, formally, in all legally correctness respond "Charges of Mr. X performing Y crime have been filed in Z county".

Realistically, child protection just DOES require action before charges can be levied in court, and yet CPS cannot publicly respond to a public accusation of their conduct with their reasoning. It's slander/libel. So it's inherently very easy to make out CPS to be the bad guy, and CPS cannot strategically do anything to defend its actions in the public eye.

Magnanimous_J:It's already been established on here that pot had little, if anything to do with the child being removed by CPS. So can we stop pretending this is the fault of some dull eyed hicks from Texas doing it "cuz of the devil's mary-wana. Praise Jay-Sus!"?

Good luck with that. One of the unassailable truths on Fark is that CPS is bad so anytime there's a story like this the entire thing must be their fault and if you post additional facts or context that suggests that the real story isn't so simple and clear-cut you're just a troll.

inner ted:///If you have an infant or toddler, read a book to them every day.

even if it's just 'brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" for the 900 time cause the kid loves his brown bear brown bear ?

/dr seuss books are looooooonger than i remember when i was a kid

Yes. But you don't have to limit them to that. Read *TWO* books, one they want, and one they might not want. Point to the words and the pictures. Point to different letters. Make a game out of it.

Then, see if they can spot the same words or letters in the store. We had the littlebopper reading very basic stuff before kindergarten. We'd have him sound out words. Even a simple stop sign is an opportunity to learn (did you know it's "POTS" backwards?).

Point is, you should be educating your kids long before they ever set foot in a school. If you wait and let the government do it for you, you've already set them back before they even get started.

Ugh, it bugs me so much when people say this. My wife and applied to be foster parents about a year ago. We filled out all the hugely intrusive paperwork, gave up six weekends in a row to attend the classes, etc. But when the caseworker came to do the home study, we mentioned that we had been pursuing adoption (don't get me started on that) and had decided to do foster care instead on the recommendation of our neighbor who was also a foster parent. And of course, we were open to adopting a child out of foster care if the situation arose. So they decided, on the basis of that alone, that we really didn't want to be foster parents after all and referred us back to yet another adoption agency. I found out later that quite a few other couples from our training class had been similarly rejected.

They complain about not having enough families, but they're so quick to dismiss the ones who actually volunteer to help.

Fun fact - according to the AJC, the "nonprofit" adoption agency that they sent us to spends more on their administration than on child-related services. Several of their employees make 6-figure salaries, but they somehow think it's justified to charge upwards of $25k for placement services.

In my state, especially in my region of the state, we're extremely short of foster parents. Yet, they try way too hard to make it difficult to give foster parenting a chance. The requirements here are ridiculous. They make it so that pretty much the only people that are willing/able to jump through the hoops and meet the requirements are the kind of people who have a big time alterior motive. It skews the percentage of people who want to force a fundamentalist religious agenda, or just use the kids as an income source, or use fostering as a source for kids they can abuse. If they made it easier in some ways, more good,normal, families might give it a shot.

And it seems there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere. No, we don't want kids being sent to foster homes that aren't safe, happy, healthy, places for children to live. In my area, we seem to be erring on both sides of the spectrum, too many awful people being allowed to foster, and too many decent people being denied or deterred from fostering. It's really tough to find a solution. I'm thinking more of "total points" checklist approach, might be an improvement over the system we're currently using. Have a few things that are automatic "no", like if you've been convicted of a felony, violent crime, sex crime, etc. And then all of the other things that might make your household more or less qualified are worth so many points toward or against you. And you need a total of x amount of points to qualify. As it is now, it's both too cut and dried in some ways and too subjective in others. Being a fit household for a child isn't a one-size fits all thing. Some homes that might be weak in one area or another might be really strong in other ways that more than make up for it. Especially when many of the kids are coming from environments that are THOROUGHLY unfit.

SpacemanSpoof:Ugh, it bugs me so much when people say this. My wife and applied to be foster parents about a year ago. We filled out all the hugely intrusive paperwork, gave up six weekends in a row to attend the classes, etc. But when the caseworker came to do the home study, we mentioned that we had been pursuing adoption (don't get me started on that) and had decided to do foster care instead on the recommendation of our neighbor who was also a foster parent. And of course, we were open to adopting a child out of foster care if the situation arose. So they decided, on the basis of that alone, that we really didn't want to be foster parents after all and referred us back to yet another adoption agency. I found out later that quite a few other couples from our training class had been similarly rejected.

That sounds like a local asshole-in-charge situation.

The distaffbopper and I were completely up-front about wanting to eventually adopt. The people running our county foster care were fine with that. In fact, our very first placement was a "safe haven" baby left at the local hospital when he was just 5 hours old. We eventually adopted him (the littlebopper).

As I recall, out of our foster care classes, only 1 "couple" (actually, a mother/daughter team) didn't get certified, and that's because they failed to disclose something financial that wouldn't have been a bar to certification had they disclosed it. I assume it was a bankruptcy.

We've taken other placements since then, though, but some of our longer ones turned into heartbreaks, so we mostly just do respite now. Worse one: Getting a 2 month old baby girl, and raising her for 9 months, then letting go. That just really, really, *REALLY* sucks. She went to her grandparents, who are wonderful people, but even now I tear up thinking about it.

Naesen:LowbrowDeluxe: dukeblue219: Chummer45: And the saddest part is, this kind of overzealous bullshiat - where the authorities ruin someone's life because they smoked a joint - goes on all the time.

Maybe read the other comments to see the full story. This wasn't about some wonderful parents who happened to smoke a joint from time to time.

/Also, literally everyone who has ever handled babies for more than a few days of time has dropped one//you dust them off quickly, go 'haha, babies, they cry over anything' when the wrath of god peers into the room suspiciously, then spend a few hours staring at the spot that made contact and hyperventilating over whether there is a bump showing or if you just ruined her chances of Harvard

Babies, much like kittens, bounce.

Kittens don't bounce. They do tend to land on their feet when a toddler drops them, even if said drop is from as little as a foot up. Their legs are splayed, but they are on their feet when they land. Parents, siblings, and child-blessed friends say I have the perfect hands for holding munchkins. These paws are huge, so they balance just right; baby's head sitting in the palm of one hand, butt in the other, feet between my fingers. I don't mind taking over holding duties anytime. cousin lives about 4 blocks away, so i'm hoping to get some practice in when his wife gives birth.

/would like one of my own, but the woman hasn't come along yet...//stop dropping the kitten, Connor

dittybopper:inner ted: ///If you have an infant or toddler, read a book to them every day.

even if it's just 'brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" for the 900 time cause the kid loves his brown bear brown bear ?

/dr seuss books are looooooonger than i remember when i was a kid

Yes. But you don't have to limit them to that. Read *TWO* books, one they want, and one they might not want. Point to the words and the pictures. Point to different letters. Make a game out of it.

Then, see if they can spot the same words or letters in the store. We had the littlebopper reading very basic stuff before kindergarten. We'd have him sound out words. Even a simple stop sign is an opportunity to learn (did you know it's "POTS" backwards?).

Point is, you should be educating your kids long before they ever set foot in a school. If you wait and let the government do it for you, you've already set them back before they even get started.

does it count that he can already hold the xbox mote properly and can kinda drive (not really - just rams into a wall and burns out the engine holding down the throttle) in my racing game?

inner ted:does it count that he can already hold the xbox mote properly and can kinda drive (not really - just rams into a wall and burns out the engine holding down the throttle) in my racing game?

Yes. Mine loves to "paint" in Tux Paint. Also, Gcompris. She knows how to use her mouse to point and click and knows where the shift keys are on her keyboard (important for her keyboard games)./LittleKirz is running Qimo on my old college PC

BitwiseShift:Back when GeorgeW was running for governor of Texas, he took a question from a social worker in the audience. Before that, I'd never seen a sneer like that when he heard she was a social worker.

Fast forward. You can imagine how well funded and valued any agency that might protect that little girl really is. There's probably a tiny office of overworked CPS workers who have been crying their eyes out for days.

A good friend (and goalie for my hockey team) was an investigator for Philly CPS/Social Services...The guy's heart was into his job, the city recognized him meritorious service and he did a lot of good...but it took a huge toll on him, he has switched jobs now, and much happier about it, having to deal with the stuff he told us about sounded bad enough, and the ones he couldn't talk to us(teammates) about I know hurt to be a part of. A lot of the CPS are extremely vested in doing the best they can, especially for the victims and children, it is a hard, hard thing to deal with.

This is in a state that has been fairly liberal in its social services, I would not dare imagine what it is like in a state that for the most part wants nothing to do with that facet of governance, so much so that it willfully allows neglectful and corrupt contractor's to operate seemingly free to do so as they please.

People often step into those service jobs believing they can help, but it takes a huge toll, emotionally, physically, adn affects all aspects of your life, they are saturated in it. I would have to think that the actual CPS people involved will be tortured over this for a long time, if they ever find solace from it. However, the companies involved in operations and oversight... could give a shiat. One less expense...

Bontesla:Magnanimous_J:It just pisses me off that everytime something like this happens, people jump down CPS' throat. They are in there every day dealing with the kind of shiat you can't even imagine for a salary they could earn as an office manager at a dentist. They take farked kids out of farked homes and try to put them in the least farked place they can find with the same money the Navy spends on one can of missile paint, and they're the bad guys.

They've placed her with two abusive families. So, excuse me if I don't shed a tear for CPS.

But they put them in the "least abusive" homes they could find, so it's all good.

dittybopper:TuteTibiImperes: That's a sad story, but there seems to be some missing details. It seems very extreme that CPS would remove a child from the parents' care because of one pot bust, and how did they even find out the parents were smoking pot while the child slept? It's certainly wrong what happened to the kid in foster care, but I'm curious about what went down to have the child removed from the parents in the first place.

I'm a foster parent. I've worked with CPS. I've seen them pull kids based on what I would think was pretty minor stuff.

We had one placement of a 2 year old boy who was removed on suspicion of physical abuse. Within half an hour of being in our home, we knew how he got the bruises he had: Kid was a natural daredevil. He liked to climb up on stuff and jump down, and he didn't mind getting hurt in the process.

You know, the natural born athlete type.

Turns out the mother's sister had a grudge of some kind against the mother of the boy, and she called CPS because she was "concerned" that there might be some physical abuse. CPS shows up, sees the bruises, and pulls the kid immediately. They have the power in my state to do that for up to 48 hours or so before it has to go to a family court judge. And when you show up to that first court date, you almost certainly don't have any real evidence to dispute CPS.

Even though it was obvious to everyone, including the judge, that the mother wasn't abusing the boy, it still took her a month to get her son back, *AND* she was monitored by Social Services for a year after that.

I think CPS is predisposed to pulling kids out of homes if there is the slightest amount of evidence that supports a neglect or abuse finding, even if it's ultimately bullshiat. That's because if it is found out that they could have done something to "save just one kid", and they didn't, there is at the very minimum a lot of bad press for them locally.

/We only do temporary "respite" care now.//To hard to have a kid, esp ...

The opposite is also true ... CPS tends to miss the genuine cases of abuse, because the abusers are so damn good at hiding it. From the time I was 4 until i graduated high school, I lived in fear of three different step-fathers with violent tempers. Two of them were chronic drunks, increasing their odds of coming home with a bad need to beat the crap out of the first person they saw.

Every last one of them was the sweetest, most supportive person you would ever meet... at least until after the honeymoon. Once they married my mother, it was the same pattern.... no more going out with her friends, then no more visiting family, then coming home late from work angry and/or smelling heavily of alcohol, then the routine beatings and implied threats against her life if she even thought of leaving him.

It's the one thing I still have issues with when it comes to my relationship with my mom. I love her dearly, but I still resent her unwillingness to leave those monsters at the first sign they were EXACTLY like my first step-father. I resent her more for defending them when CPS was called (and us kids were too young for our testimony to be admissible in court)..Heck, when mom first introduced me to my soon-to-be third stepfather, I instinctively knew what he was after only a few minutes. I was old enough then to state my opinion of him, and warned my mom about him. She didn't listen, forcing us kids to endure another 4 years of hell under his rule. The fact she didn't believe her own son that she was dating yet another man with a violent temper, really cut me deep.